Clarets corked as Beavers overcome wind

Hampton pick up an impressive win in a difficult game against playoff rivals

The Beavers extended their unbeaten run to 21 games with a hard fought victory at a blustery Melbourne Park against Chelmsford City, keeping them in touch with league leaders, Dartford.

Hampton got off to the best of starts. Brendan Kiernan found enough space down the Hampton left to fire over a low cross; Max Kretzschmar had found himself some room as he ran into the box, and opening up his body, guided it deftly past debutant keeper Nathan Gartside from close range for his 10th league goal this season.

The Clarets came back into the game pretty quickly as first Miles fired a shot wide of Manny Agboola's post before the keeper had to stand tall on his line to block a goal-bound header from Mark Haines, all before 10 minutes had been played.

Midway through the half, Hampton nearly chalked up a second as Charlie Wassmer met a Josh Casey corner on the run, but he couldn't get over it enough and the ball clipped the crossbar as it rocketed over.

Josh Taylor had looked he was starting to get into the game and just after the half hour, he had a great chance. Beating the left back, Braham-Barrett, he cut inside and switched the ball into his left foot; his shot beat Gartside but Omuzusi had covered the goal and his diving header sent the ball out for a corner.

With half time in sight, the Clarets nearly snatched an equaliser from a corner as Spillane's header was headed off the line by Christian Jolley, who had stayed on Agboola's right hand post, and the Beavers managed to clear the ball away to safety.

The second half was always going to be tough for the Beavers as they now had the wind in their faces, and Chelmsford soon took advantage of it.

Batt had an early header on goal, but it was straight at Agboola as the home side started to look as if they were serious about keeping themselves in the playoff race, despite a run of poor performances in recent games.

They ramped up the pressure with a series of corners, until just before the hour, Manny could do nothing about Anthony Church's rocket-like header from 10 yards out to level the scores.

With just over 20 minutes to go, the Beavers started to make inroads in the Clarets territory, and keeping the ball under the wind, won a corner on their left. The corner into the 6 yard box was missed completely by the on-rushing Gartside, and it bounced up invitingly for the lurking Elliott Charles to head home from a couple of yards.

There was just about 10 minutes left on the watch before the Clarets re-surfaced following the setback of the goal. Matty Johnson's volley flew just over the bar with a handful of minutes left, but in truth, the home side never looked like breaking the Beavers down, and with the introduction of Leon Solomon into the midfield just before added time began, Dowse shut up shop and took the points.

Speaking after the game on Twitter, assistant manager Ian Dyer heaped praise on the team, "Great away win, the boys showed unbelievable character and desire to get the 3 points!